Bring the
people to your site that will bring people to your
site.
In the
beginning your marketing efforts will seem to progress very
slowly. A few hits a weeks if your lucky. There are a lot of
sites out there.
There is
something very important that we learned in our research
that is not as commonly known as it should be. You should
not focus your marketing efforts on the masses. In
fact there are only 2 groups that any and all campaigns
should go after.
1. Those that are
hyper-specific to your topic.
2. Those that the masses
already follow.
Again, focus on those
who
are interested in what you have to say and offer, and those
that influence others.
We originally used the split test with our Google Adwords
campaign alone (with incredible results by the way) then we
realized that it could be used with any marketing effort.
The Split Test allows the controller to measure the
effectiveness of different campaigns by running
simultaneously in pairs against one another. We learned of
the split test in
The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making
Money with AdSense. because it is so easily monitored with
Google Analytics. There are, however, other ways to
measure your sites effectiveness. You can add a
Form
with a drop down menu asking "where did you hear about us?"
We
typically use
myContactForm to create our formsfor free and the results get emailed to us without
having to know the coding.
With this info you can track what works and what doesn't.
You can run several types of campaigns to see which ones get
the best results with your particular audience, then focus
on those and narrow your results until you reach your
intended goal.
Sensei
says "A weakness is only a strength you do not know how
to use for your advantage."
Your competitors are full of great ideas. Take a look at
some of the other sites in your area of expertise. Look at
their ranking on
Alexa.com
(a website ranking site.) and see who is getting more hits.
I could be their site design, it could be their name, it
could be a number of things.
Your job is to
find out what those things are and exploit them.
If you decide to spend any money initially, this is where you do it
- wisely. If you are like us and are more interested in keeping
money in your pocket, then there are a few ways to generate business
without breaking the bank.
You can become
an expert yourself by publishing your articles in as many places as
you can - for free. Sites are looking for quality content all
the time and really do not delve too deeply into ones resume. A good
place to start is the same sites that you used when you were
Borrowing Content for your site. Register
with them and donate to the community.
Start with a few
smaller sites and move on from there.
Visit newsgroups to subtly promote your site.
Make sure there is tagline [a simple link i.e.-
www.bearintel.com, will work
fine] that will direct the reader to your site.
Create a newsletter and e-mail them to your friends or other people
that you know are interested in your topic Your goal is not to sell
but to become a "voice of authority" by supplying useful
information.
Your Newsletter is what will bring them to your site and your
Reviews sell your products or services.
Write articles about/for Decision Makers.
Become an
advocate for a local Decision Maker. An advocate is someone
who believes in someone else's cause. A decision maker is someone
who already has the influence over a large group of people. The head
of a current social organization or the organization itself, would
be a great place to start.
Find a story in
your local newspaper that shines a spotlight on someone in your
community that you believe could be someone of value. For example
you sell sporting supplies on your website and your local flag
football team just went to the championship.
Contact the
head coach of the team, explain who you are and share that you would
like to write an article about him/her to post on yours and a half-dozen other sites. Advise them that because of
their team's success, you will post a picture of them on your site.
Ask the head coach if he/she would mind if you called your site
"The
official website of the ________ ________ !"
Now seal the deal.
For every $100 profit to the site, you will donate a new regulation
football to the team. After he/she agrees to this, come back
the next day with a hundred or so flyers showcasing the website's
name, a picture of the team, and a few of the great deals showcased on
your
site. Let the team members hand out the flyers to their friends and
family and watch the register ring.
Networking with Millionaires... and Their Advisors
tells the stories and gives the break downs of some of this
country' s greatest and cheapest professional networkers. It does not
take a million dollars to build a million dollar network, just time,
energy and commitment.
People love to see their name up in lights,
especially if it's something positive or highlighting something they have put a lot
of effort into. Pride builds ego which in turn builds trust.
Cost:
$0.00
Swap links with other site owners.
The more outside links (links on other sites that
point to yours) you have pointing to your site the higher
your ranking will be with some search engines, like
Google. This is seen as an indicator of your site's value
and popularity, thus the higher ranking.
Be very selective about your keywords. Be your customer.
Think of the most likely keywords and phrases that your customers
will be looking for, and use them in your titles and meta tags.
In order to get listed with search engines, you'll need to
submit your site to them.
Yes it's true that those search engines that
crawl sites may eventually find you, but remember that they
either follow links or go to sites they've been told about.
If there aren't any links to your site, then they may never
crawl it.
First, you need to make sure you
get
listed in Yahoo!. Various reports say anywhere from 50%
to 80% of all web site visitors originate from a Yahoo!
search. Your site needs to be there. This service is free
so take advantage of it.
Submit your to
Google.
They are the largest players next to Inktomi (aka Yahoo). These are both true "search engines"
that crawl sites and index content and links. Submitting
your site to these major players is still free. Inktomi
doesn't maintain its own search page, but it does have many
large portal partners, such as MSN, AOL,
LookSmart,
About,
and
HotBot,
that use Inktomi's search database and technology.
Search
engines use mini programs called Spiders to comb the web
randomly, categorizing every page on the net. That is how
search engines know what you page is about. When a new page
is created, within a few days a spider will read it -
identify the keywords and report back to the server to
access this site when a search is conducted.
Look
closely at your
page titles.(A web page title is the name
or title of a Web site or a Web page. It can be a decorative
clip art banner, or a plain text title or header.)
Every page in your site has a title that shows up at the
top of the browser screen.
Use
meta tags to put your keywords right where the
spiders are going to look. Meta tags are coded lists of your
keywords and company or business descriptions that do not
show up on your pages when viewed with a browser, but are
visible within the HTML code of the page for the crawling
spiders to see.
For
example,
you would set up your meta tags like this:
<meta name="description" content="PUT YOUR COMPANY
DESCRIPTION HERE">
<meta name="keywords" content="PUT YOUR KEY WORDS HERE">
There's nothing better than knowing that you have money
coming in the same time every month. With a subscription
service, all you need to do is provide a worthwhile service
or present worthwhile source of information and people will
pay you every month on time.
Whether that
information is access to a Social Network or a monthly
newsletter, you will retain more customers by offering
unique information.
RSitez
is a great Social Networking site and will cost you hundreds
less than others out there.
If you do not
want to build an entire social community, try starting a
newsletter. These are especially great for people involved
in industries where rules and regulation change often and it
is imperative for them to be up to date- such as
the mortgage industry or web design industry for instance.
You will need
some serious content to keep a decent audience entertained
month after month. Again, if someone does not like your
work, they are more likely to tell other people not to
visit. In the contrary, if you do provide a good
service then there is a chance that that person will tell
their friends.
If you decide
to go the newsletter route and cannot figure out how to
charge automatically, Paypal has your solution. Safe
and completely customizable, they can take the money
directly out of the client's checking account on a
predetermined schedule.
Cost:
If you build your own, you can do this for
free. Should you choose to purchase a mailing list, then it
could cost you a few bucks.
Seminars are a great
way to market your website, service or product. They are
also a great way to generate
viral marketing and create a slew of additional
income streams. With enough preparation you can profit
big time from a good seminar.
There are a
few key ingredients and steps thought that are critical.
Choosing this type of advertisement is costly, time
consuming, and takes weeks if not months of prep and
research. It is only to be used when you've reached a certain
level of recognition.
Some of the income potential includes:
Venue parking
Profit on drinks/snacks served
Paid inclusion of other merchants or
speakers
Advertisement revenue from banners
Having paid open table networking
time
Creation of marketing/ mailing lists
+ sale of your own product/service
and website.
Jenny Hamby is one of the
worlds foremost seminars marketers. She has an amazing mailing list
for free and sends really great information.
http://www.howtomarketseminars.com/
Cost:
This can be very costly as well as generate
HUGE revenues.
. because it is so easily monitored with
by
Thomas J. Stanley
tells the stories and gives the break downs of some of this
country' s greatest and cheapest professional networkers. It does not
take a million dollars to build a million dollar network, just time,
energy and commitment.
.
This book illustrates in detail, not only how to master
